Liverpool Blitz: The Western Approaches

German U-boats, surface warships and aircraft were attacking
Allied ships as they carried vital supplies to and from
Britain. It was the responsibility of the Western Approaches command centre to ensure that those ships reached their
destinations.

The base had originally been in Plymouth, but once France fell to the Germans and London was effectively closed to ships,
it became necessary to move the command centre further north to the Atlantic coast of the country. Liverpool, the largest
and most central west-coast port on the British mainland, was the ideal location.

A North Atlantic Convoy with air escort

The new command centre was built beneath Derby House, a large office block on Water Street in the heart of Liverpool. Over
1000 RAF and Royal Navy staff, mainly Wrens, lived and worked in the bomb and
gas proof basement. They plotted the movement of enemy and Allied ships and submarines on huge maps, constantly analysing new
intelligence and weather reports. Analysts who
would telephone RAF and Royal Navy bases and ships with exact updates overlooked this operations floor. There was also a hotline
telephone (in a booth) direct to the War Cabinet. Like the hotline booth
the cipher room, from where secret codes were sent and deciphered, was guarded
when in use.

There were over 100 rooms of accommodation in the 55,000 sq ft centre, with senior officers sleeping very close to their
offices. There was even a sunray treatment room for people working long hours underground.

During the war the Commander-in-Chief of Western Approaches, based in Liverpool, controlled naval staff and ships from
Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, France, Holland, Norway, Belgium, Greece, USA, India and South Africa.

The event for which the Western Approaches is probably best remembered was the sinking of the famous German battleship,
Bismarck on 27th May 1941.